Tips for Bible Reading

The beginning of the calendar year is a time when
many people establish a list of things they want to either improve about
themselves or begin doing in the coming year.
Some will desire to better their health, whether that means increased
exercise or better eating habits. Others
establish professional goals – getting a promotion or better job, hitting a
quota, or furthering their education.
Still others pursue resolutions that are intended to make them better
people – being nicer to others, giving more to charity, or spending more time
with family and friends.

It’s also a time when many believers look to grow
deeper in their faith by reading the Bible through over the course of the year. Each year here at Faith, we promote such a
plan, with each week’s readings included in the bulletin. Since we instituted this several years ago,
we have sought to utilize a different reading plan each year in order that your
reading of God’s Word does not become rote or grow stale. To that end, we’ve utilized a chronological
plan, a plan that focused on different genres of Scripture each day of the
week, and one that provides five days’ worth of reading each week, allowing you
to either take a day off or catch up if you missed a day (our current
program). The plan we include in the
bulletin begins each Spring, as opposed to January 1st (in large
part due to the fact that when we started including these, it was in the
Spring!).

Still, I know that many of you follow your own
reading plan that begins with the calendar year, so I thought this would be a
good time to offer some words of encouragement and advice for successfully
completing your reading plan! Here are a
few ideas that I think you will find beneficial:

Prayer. I recommend that before you dig into
Scripture, spend some time in prayer with God.
Ask Him to give you understanding for the passages you will be
reading. Praise Him for giving us His
Word, that we might know Him better through it.
Thank Him for His sanctification that comes from studying His Word. Then, read and meditate on your passage for
the day. Then, before you close your
Bible, spend some time thanking God again for the Scriptures, as well as asking
Him for both the faith to believe what it written as well as the strength to
put it into practice.

Designated
time and space. Developing a routine
for your study is a critical component in regards to successfully continuing
with your plan. As much as possible, do
your prayer and reading in the same place and at the same time each day. Make sure it is a quiet spot where you won’t
be distracted (sitting in front of a turned on TV or radio is not ideal). You’ll be building a good habit.

Enlist a
partner. Find someone who is willing
to do the same plan as you. During the
day, send that person a quick email with a few sentences about what you read
that day. These may be a question about the
passage or a way that you were challenged by what God has said. It needn’t be long (although you may carry on
some good conversation as you share with one another!), because the idea here
is to be accountable to one another for staying on track.

Don’t get
discouraged. One of the surest ways
Satan uses to keep God’s people out of the Bible is to get them to miss a
couple of days. Then, through a
combination of guilt, shame, and discouragement, the Bible gets laid
aside. Rather than quitting, simply pick
up where you left off. Sure, missing a
couple of days isn’t good, but missing every day is even worse. You may be discouraged after missing a day or
two, but imagine how much worse it will be if you stop altogether.

This year, resolve to spend more time in God’s Word. I assure you, it will never be time poorly spent! And rather than striving for perfection with your plan (which, when missed, often leads to abandonment), opt instead to pursue consistency. Just something to think about…